Monkey Girl turns 8

Miss Kaiya a/k/a Monkey Girl turned 8 today and she has had a heck of a weekend! I was telling her the story of her birth this morning and realizing that she is growing up so fast. Eight years ago, I was at home with Cooper while Doug headed off to a church meeting. He had planned to stop at the grocery store and then go to his meeting, but Kaiya had other plans. My water broke right after he left and after repeated attempts to get him to answer his cell phone, I finally resorted to having him paged over the intercom at Safeway. It worked and just 6 short hours later, Kaiya was born. We should have realized then that she had albinism (for those who don't know, Kaiya is mildly albino, which means she lacks pigment in her skin, hair and on her retina) because the nurses nicknamed her "Snowflake" in the nursery with her head that looked exactly like a Q-tip with white fuzz on top. See for yourself.

White-haired baby Kaiya

We let Kaiya have her first slumber party this weekend for her birthday and it was a hit. She and five of her closest friends had a great night. They decorated sugar cookies, made personalized pillowcases, watched a movie, ate pizza and crashed a little after midnight. They were up at the crack of dawn, but I was pleased they got as much sleep as they did. Good thing I work nights and am accustomed to being up late since Doug had to work on Saturday.

Then, today, we celebrated her birthday with my family in Greeley. Uncle Brandon and Aunt Erika hosted dinner and she got spoiled rotten with some new clothes, games, her own scriptures (she will be baptized in Utah with cousin Anna on Dec. 6th) and a bedroom makeover. She wanted homemade brownies for dessert instead of a cake and I had to stop her at 2 huge brownies. I think we are ready to call it a weekend! Doug will be a helping dad in her class tomorrow and she is excited for that. Right now, I'm just grateful for our family policy of a birthday party every other year! Whew!